Why does this entire board think that the 2 year sabbatical is an advantage for BYU?

Because you’re then ~25 as a senior. Also because I know from my own social circle it’s not as if missionaries are chained to a post and forced to be sedentary for two years as some try to purport.

TLDR please OP

The same reason why an 18 year old is going to be better than a 16 year old. Men still grow and develop physically well into their late 20s. An extra 2 years of age even if not training is still a huge advantage. Think maturity and the ability to handle more training as well. Most add on a redshirt year as well so 2 years turns in 3 (4 if you count Covid as well).

This “entire board” doesn’t believe anything. There is nothing you can get consensus upon, so you screwed up from the get go.

Adult males don’t reach their physical peak until their late 20s. Fitness may temporarily stall while on a mission, but these guys come back with a higher floor and higher ceiling by virtue of being older. Being a grown man is a huge advantage on its own. I’m not even commenting on whether it should or shouldn’t be allowed, but you can’t ignore nature.

BYU regularly does exceptionally well on a national level using almost exclusively local talent. Not one of the other top level programs have that kind of success year in and year out without international athletes. To anyone with eyes and a brain, that means BYU has some other type of advantage over those programs. The obvious answer is the age disparity.

The BYU women are equally successful as the men and none of their recent national champions either team or individual took time off for missions.

The LDS guys I know view their mission as two years of tough living. The evangelical part of is also tough as reruiting sucess is very low. Worse, you have to pay for the mission yourself.

There is some payoff as it trains one to become a leader in the Church someday and LDS women prefer mission graduates by a wide margin. The latter fact explains why males are leaving LDS faster than others.

If not discouraged by the whole ordeal and if one is able to resume training, there might be an advantage in that it helps to be 25 as a senior rather than 22, but I doubt anyone goes through a mission to gain a running advantage.

Easy answer. It has nothing to do with religion. Distance runners peak with age as your body matures and is able to sustain more mileage and training. It’s an advantage.

I'm liberal and I hate both Mormonism AND Islam.

Because one year of growth equals two years of coaching.

Because if you're a sincere believer you should be willing to give up two years of athletic competition for your religion, rather than being catered to.

1. Devout LDS members are allowed to go to any other school.

2. Non-LDS members are allowed to go to BYU.

3. Non-LDS memebers are allowed to take 2 years not running after high school.

4. Non-LDS member are allowed to take 4 years not running after high school.

5. Non-LDS members are allowed to take 4 years of intensive training at high altitude after high school but before NCAA.

6. LDS members are allowed to take 2 years not running on a mission, then another 2 years training at high altitude, then starting at BYU.

7. LDS member are allowed to take 2 years not running on a mission, then another 2 years training at high altitude, then starting at any other school.

All of these are possibilties. None of these offends any NCAA rule. Nobody at BYU is removing any choice from any of you.

Being forced to take two years off from training?

A few observations from a big BYU fan.

- Most coaches that have experience with female LDS runners try very hard to keep them from going on a mission. For whatever reason, it is seen as a much bigger disadvantage for women than it is for men. I’d guess they think the time off kills the competitiveness or leads to unhelpful body changes for most of them, but I don’t really know. Any discussions of mission advantages don’t apply to women at all. Coaches will tolerate it if they have to for a star, but they don’t want it.

- On an individual basis for guys, a mission is usually neutral or a disadvantage. You don’t usually see guys who go on missions outperform what you would have predicted for them out of high school. LR posters see BYU’s top 7 and notices 2-4 of them are 22+, but what they don’t see is how many really good recruits leave on a mission and never become highly competitive again. Many that look old on paper, like Clinger or Troutner, aren’t actually outperforming what should have been predicted for them in college. Look at the rest of Clinger’s HS star teammates at AF and see how they did after their missions

You get a few guys here and there who are better at 24 than anyone expected for them, but IMO it’s just as likely they would done just as well had they not gone on a mission.

Overall, BYU’s success isn’t because of missions. It is because running is huge in Utah, they train at altitude, they have good coaching, and BYU casts a huge net with a big roster so guys like Nokes, Bons and Rooks who might not have been offered to an 18 man roster get a chance in a 25+ man roster.

What's wrong with being a 25 year old senior? If the NCAA was based upon the athletes age then why do we have the u23 championships or u20? That gets no attention here.

If taking 2 years off were an advantage, then other teams would be trying to recruit LDS runners with mission plans, or encouraging their runners to take 1-2 year breaks for Peace Corps or Army service or their own religious breaks of whatever kind.

This doesn't happen. Princeton was interested in Connor Mantz but balked because he planned to go on a mission.

Coaches: if you can't adapt your system to your athletes, but insist on athletes adapting to your system, maybe don't be jealous when the BYU XC team of Provo locals stomps on you.

Do you have some proof? How about telling us the average age on the all time top 10 lists for every track event. It isn't late twenties.

They could do their mission after competition but choose not to to take advantage of being a 25 yo vs an 18 yo.

Also lds isn't exactly known for ethics.